Bhangra has been growing rapidly in the past decade. It's a good thing that this issue was brought up to everyone's attention.
Ideas and Such:
1. If there are live teams performing at a competition, make sure the judges adequately know how to judge a live set. Some judges have never judged a live set in their career. Maybe having someone experienced could give them assistance.
2. There should be some kind of a standardization of judging- maybe a generic guide or a ‘how to’ manual on judging. Some may argue that judging is easy but, if you get down to the nitty gritty details of judging there may be discrepancies within the judging panel.
3. Going back to the idea of standardization of judging, I think there should some kind of standardization of limits, like what things do you absolutely not want happening on stage. WHAT would murder the whole routine?
4. An idea would be to have this generic list of major do’s and do not’s of bhangra on competition websites. So that when teams do apply to compete, they know how to make their sets.
5. Dancer’s sometimes don’t keep account of what things are bhangra no-no’s. Often teams go into competitions wondering ‘Will I get points docked off for this attire?’ or ‘Will I get points deducted for doing this move?’ or ‘will it be inappropriate to do this on stage?’ My firm belief is that teams shouldn’t be worrying about the points they may be penalized for but, rather they should be thinking about perfecting their routine. It would be pretty efficient to have teams send in any questions or concerns they have to the selected panel of judges. That way they could get any worries out of the way. So a team doesn’t go to a competition wondering, MAN I wish we didn’t do that move or use that prop.
6. I think there should be some kind of limit to how many competitions a judge could do a year. Not trying to mess up your judging careers. But, having the same judges at every east-coast competition you go to isn’t always a plus. The whole mentality ‘oh they used bits and pieces of their blowout set, or the only thing they did was change their khunda segment’.
7. In some cases there are some organizers who don’t know much about bhangra. By having some kind of standardization it could help judges out and lost organizers.
Sorry I didn't go back and revise it. So don't change the whole thread around to - HOW to fix all of Sonia's mistakes.
Please stay on topic <3